I seem to be unusual here in that I didn't assign gender roles to any of the shapes. I did anthropomorphise them somewhat, at least to the extent of allowing for individual personalities, but didn't give any thought to gender. After all, who's to say 2d shapes breed the same way we mammals do? After reading the notes in here I recalled the supposed square=masculine/circle=feminine definition - one that's never made much sense to me. So I still refuse to crowbar the characters into one pigeonhole or another.

For the record, when I saw the strip for the first time it was already complete with the new panels added, and it seemed utterly straightforward to me - though I had to re-read the first parallelogram/circle conversation to make sense of it.

The mixed-colour kids do bring up an interesting question. What'll they be like once they grow up? Will they mature into either a green circle or a blue square, or remain as they are, or...? I wonder because there don't seem to be any blue/green circles out there. Are we supposed to assume that all the circles and squares are first-generation? Or am I reading too much into it?

As somebody earlier noted (and I noticed myself while viewing the comic), circle-ness does seem to be the dominant trait, while colour is evidently co-dominant as the kids are mixed...

This could make a great thesis for somebody. The genetics of geometric shapes... Any takers?

With no explicit gender information given I would be willing to bet that Scott intends and we are all reading the circle as the female. I wonder if shape alone would suffice to communicate gender.

Just thinking: What else might be tipping our interpretation?

1 Who is the subject and who is the object of the propositions.
2 Who is "on top"
3 Nature of the complaints
4 Who strikes the first blow

First and formost, the circle is round (safe and comforting) and the parallelogram is tall and pointy - Also, red tends to be a color associated with males and green with females (mother earth and all that) which is odd, since exposure to the color green causes an increase in the production of testosterone. Hmm... Maybe that's why everybody's after the circle?

Wonder why the circle picked the square over the parallelogram... Maybe the more stable shape put her more in mind of permanence (ie marriage). The diagonal nature of the paralellogram probably didn't help - no matter how he holds himself he always looks like he's about to topple over. Not a good first impression to give, I think.

I think it's interesting that Scott chose to make the title character red - it's the color that draws your eye most, after all. Was that intentional, or did it just happen that way, I wonder? It would be a good strategy to get the reader to emathize with the main shape-character over the others... Though I'm starting to feel a bit for poor circle. She's made a few bad choices, sure, but she certainly didn't deserve to get deflated.

There was an awesome book I read a while ago about the perception of shape and color in art. Can't remember who it was by or what it was called, but it was about four inches tall and eight inches long, black, and was mostly concerned with the telling of Little Red Riding Hood in simplified pictograms. Wish I could find that again...

hm... I got the dialogue more as the Square saying we have too many children, and he's getting stressed out by then (come on, they have what, 10 kids? O_O; and the wife is stressed too, and she starts whining about not having money, and the Square gets uber pissed and starts beating her.... so yeah, she goes out and remembers how good old parallellogram was, and dies by his side.... how sad & touching...

Square: Let us have more children to support us in our old age./Let us buy a new house to boost the economy and give us more space.
Circle: But I hate money! I gave it all to the Salvation Army.
Square: You dirty commie!

Actually I believe the "revenge" part is more in the Parallellogram's head, thinking:...

(*hurt and angry*): -You'll be sorry you turned me down *sniff* you won't know what you've let go by! One day I'm gonna be a huuuuge comic artist and you'll be sorry you chose that pompous square, you will!!!*snort* *snirfle*

(I put the "I'll be a huge comic artist" in as an autobiographical reference, mind )_________________Check out my new site (under construction) at: InkAddict

I'm not certain whether this is too late of a reply, but it seems strange that when circles and quadrangles copulate that they have circles. This is too close to Mrs. Piggy and Kermit having boy frogs, and girl pigs. Wouldn't they have some weird mutant shape if they were even able to reproduce?

As for clarifying the revenge of the situation, it comes in the form of a choice. Rather than pick the life offered by the parallelagram over the square, the circle goes for the ease of joining in a simple relationship with the square because of it's simple shape of four equal angles and sides opposed to the more complex angles and differing sides of the parallelagram. By choosing the more appropriate relationship as designated by society, the circle misses the opportunity to experience something unique, and instead, suffers as a result of its mistake. The parallelogram offered more than the square, but because of the circle's inability to see beyond shape and form and see a deeper promise of love, the circle never achieves the joy offered by the parallelogram.

The revenge occurs as the circle winds up side by side with the parallelogram regardless of its descision to wed the square. The circle suffers as much as the parallelogram, if not more, having been brutally murdered and what not. Here, the title parts from the personified parrallelogram to mean actually a parallel tale, where the road taken by the circle differed from the initial road offered, yet still provides the same outcome. In this, the tale, and therefore life, becomes the oblique sided and angled parallelogram that commits the act of revenge rather than the shape starring in the story.

The parallelogram has always idolized and truly loved the circle
They didn?t hook up the first lifetime because of their differences. This caused lifetime suffering on the part of the parallelogram and earned the circle some bad karma b/c its decision was based on trivial things. Little did the circle know that their fate was to be together for eternity?which is something that the parallelogram has always inherently known (despite the illogic of a parallelogram ever scoring with a circle.)

The second lifetime around things were different
The parallelogram was far more desirable b/c it was a little less point and alittl more stable. According to the book Flatland this would make it of a higher socioeconomic class

The circle decided to give it a shot. (Maybe it learned a little from its last lifetime.) They established a family and a home
Everything was going fine until they hit monetary adversity.
A fight ensued
The subtle tension regarding the extreme differences in socioeconomic backgrounds and physical differences had been mounting for years
In a rage the once-parallelogram-now-square violently struck down the circle from its high horse
Maybe the once-parallelogram-now-square had run out of words and felt an extreme need to SHOW the circle what it was like to be looked down upon. Maybe the once-parallelogram-now-square regretted the act the second that it happened. Maybe the once-parallelogram-now-square was motivated by the centuries of corner hatred that his shapes endured at the hands of the round. Maybe the square-that-was-once-the-parallelogram was simply seeking revenge for the suffering of his past life.
Either way the circle fell?and was forever transformed

Not only was the circle removed from its family but it also lost a little peace of itself. The circle let the wound fester for the rest of its life and probably never acknowledge the pain and depression the wound caused.

The wounded circle saw no sun or moon those years only an increasing amount of darkness as it aged away.

Adding to the circles problems was its forever-distorted shape. Once convex and socially excepted, the circle was now an irregular shape rejected by both upper-round and lower-pointy class

Then, in the late hours of its lifetime the circle realized how important the parallelogram really was.
It accepted its true love for the parallelogram.
Hope rose up within the circle wounded heart like the moon in the sky!
Alas, it was too late to seek redemption from the late parallelogram
And as the moon of hope slipped away the circle died alone of a broken heart.

One could make the argument that the circle again let a trivial thing such as a fight get in the way of something that was meant to be? that the circles bad karma from the last lifetime caught up to it. But I feel that the problem was more multi faceted than that.

I personal feel that the parallelogram should bare some responsibility.
It clearly had issues and was all to quick to internalize its pain
For example the parallelogram could have made a little more effort to woo the circle in the first lifetime. I mean the parallelogram was shot down once?if it really believed that it was true love, what kind of shape would let one obstacle prevent what they felt was meant to be? But no, the parallelogram gives up and internalizes its pain to die alone

I think the parallelograms have some self-esteem issues. Maybe if the parallelograms learned to love themselves they could learn to be loved by others.

So what! The circle missed the boat the first lifetime! It was only because it didn?t understand at that point?maybe the parallelogram should have had the patients, confidence and maturity to show the circle just how much it meant to it. But instead it decided to seek revenge.

Plus you have to give props to the circle in the second lifetime for standing up against marital violence. That?s never an easy thing even if you are paying for bad karma.

I don?t really side with either shaped souls but
I think the whole relationship is tragic but has hope for success in other life times

Again, I see the piercing of the circle as more symbolic of a broken heart. Weather the circle's heart was broken by mean spirited words, or violent actions, I can not say. The circle dies not from actual wounds, but of lonliness and regret.

I think the points of gender and race are debatable, but as far as the violence is concerned it was surely intended to be literal. I say this mainly because while the work was still in progress I posted that I wondered what their blood would look like, and Scott said take a look at today's entry (being the one where the circle gets hit). Mean-spirited words, as you say, generally don't cause one to bleed.

Though what's still open to interpretation is the degree to which the circle was wounded. Perhaps it was a mortal blow and the circle died right away, or perhaps a great deal of time passed between the last two panels and the circle lived for quite a while after being abused by the square.

i thought it was the most brilliant cartoon since that one by that guy who did the line and the dot... or was it the dot and the line? you know the one where the line was in love withnthe dot but she liked the fancy, wild squiggle. the animator did a lot of bugs bunny cartoons as well.

anyway, i loved how abstract shapes took on a life, i'm not even sure how it was done. i guess it all comes down to depending on the audience to decipher the symbols and icons. like our ability to asscoiate abstract ideas with visual stimuli.

my run down is, the para...thingy, tell the circle some cheezy pick up line about her being an angel(angle hehhe) and how they should be together and have kids and get burried next to each other. she tells him to bugger off. she meets a square(thats a pretty good play as well) and accepts him.
after 10 years of marriage, they fight, he hits her, she decends into depression and remembers that nice para thing, a real angel, anyway she finds him and he's dead, she dies shortly and is buried next to him, like he said at the start.

this really is like a rorshach test!! i was reading through the other comments and people are reading all sorts of things into these absract forms. you don't even realise that your being manipulated!
your talking about racial discrimination, spousal abuse, and sexual discrimination. and all this discussion was provoked by abstract shapes.

has it occured to anyone that scotty isn't wainting for someone to work out what it all means but that he's conducting a social experement?

maybe there is no concrete answer, and he just want to see what we do with the images he's presented us.

you don't even realise that your being manipulated!has it occured to anyone that scotty isn't wainting for someone to work out what it all means but that he's conducting a social experement

I, for one, am fully aware of Scott McCloud's manipulative machinations. My operatives and I have been observing this 'wolf in cartoonist's clothing" for some time, now. We have concluded that his ultimate goal is no less than World Domination, and that his micro-payments scheme is nothing more that a method for financing his diobolical power grab.

Indeed, one of our agents, assigned to S.D. Comic-con, overheard Mr. McCloud say, to one of his henchmen, "With this comic-strip, I could - dare I say it - RULE THE WORLD!" We have also learned that McCloud is currently in negotiations with Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, for the use of the largest, most feared fighting force on Earth, the KISS Army.

Do not be fooled by his pleasant, fun-loving demeanor. Scott McCloud is more of a threat to the free peoples of the globe than Osama Bin Laden, Saddam Hussien, Kim Jung Il, or the spawn of Satan himself, Garry Trudeau._________________"Park the beers, and grab the smiles. It's flight time." - LtCdr. J. Robert "Bobby" Stone, USN (R.I.P.)

We have concluded that his ultimate goal is no less than World Domination, and that his micro-payments scheme is nothing more that a method for financing his diobolical power grab.

I hear he's running for Calfornia Governor.

Scott's tyrannical road to power will bypass all democratic channels. It's more along the lines of turning the masses into his unwitting zombie slaves, and crushing the opposition with the overwhelming brute force of the KISS Army - along with Led Zeppelin Air Force, the Pantera Marine
Corps, and the Village People Navy.

you people are weird, i was just talking about a mark salem mental manipulation, you've just gone spastic, and taken it in wild tangents. Scott's probably reading this and thinking, 'this experiment's gotten way out of hand.'

Scott has never and probably will never tell the "meaning" behind his stories/art. He thinks himself as a true artist who wants the veiwer/reader to find the meaning themselves and does not get in the way of the veiwer/reader finding their own meaning. Afteral, that is art. Art can be a communication tool, however it can be a living changing entity.

As for the weirdos on this board, what do you expecct from a bunch of comic and computer nerds.
_________________

Don't know how I missed that picture of McCloud's cybernetic hand the first time. But then, such is the evil genius McCloud. Now matter how closely we observe him and his activities, he always manages to distract us somehow. He is indeed a worthy, yet dangerous adversary._________________"Park the beers, and grab the smiles. It's flight time." - LtCdr. J. Robert "Bobby" Stone, USN (R.I.P.)